


Her wise and whirling heart

by MonitorofNothing



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22211593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonitorofNothing/pseuds/MonitorofNothing
Summary: A newly qualified Hecate Hardbroom arrives at Cackle's and gets to know the deputy headmistress.
Relationships: Ada Cackle/Hecate Hardbroom
Comments: 9
Kudos: 51





	Her wise and whirling heart

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Mary Oliver's A Letter from Home.

She thinks Ada is a summer person, at first.

Hecate arrives at Mrs Cackle's Academy For Witches at the tail end of an August heatwave. She moves in earlier than strictly necessary because she wants to feel fully prepared for her first year as Potions Mistress. It was the headmistress Alma Cackle who interviewed her for the role, but she's not here now and it's her daughter Ada, the deputy headmistress, who welcomes Hecate to the castle, shows her around and tells her to just ask if she needs anything, anything at all.

They are alone together for a week before the rest of the staff return and while Hecate is busy setting up her lab and filling her shelves with potion after potion, Ada seems to spend most of that time floating around in a faded pink sundress and a big floppy hat, drinking lemonade and turning like a flower towards the sun.

Hecate sees Ada's light dim a little as soon as her mother arrives, but with the start of the autumn term she herself is so overwhelmed by the demands of her new teaching position that she doesn't have much attention to spare for the deputy headmistress for a while.

  
It's not until winter comes that Ada really catches her notice again. The first snow falls overnight and Alma Cackle is tutting because Ada doesn't come down for breakfast. When the girls flood outside for some fresh air after the meal there are cries of excitement as they find their deputy head standing glowing and a little defiant on the witchball court next to a perfect snow model of the Academy. Alma disapproves of course. But Hecate finds herself captivated by the intricacy of the snow castle - although she still feels vaguely shocked by the amount of time Ada took out of her day to dedicate to something so frivolous.

  
Two months later she stumbles across Ada in the gardens, crawling on her hands and knees through a flower bed, oblivious to the mud now staining her skirt. She looks up and her smile hits Hecate like a lighthouse beam. _Look,_ she says and Hecate looks and sees she has been clearing away the dead leaves covering the earth to reveal dozens of little pale green points struggling up through the half frozen ground. _It's nearly spring!_ says Ada, and Hecate finds herself smiling too, catching the other woman's enthusiasm and enjoying it. Ada's hat is askew. There is dirt under her fingernails and a smudge of earth on her cheekbone but Hecate sees suddenly that she is beautiful, and wonders how she never noticed it before.

  
Spring is fully sprung and Hecate goes out at daybreak to gather potion ingredients while they are at full potency, tender and bright green and beaded with morning dew. On her way back she catches Ada sneaking armfuls of cherry blossom into the castle. Ada grins sheepishly. _I like to decorate my bedroom with it,_ she confesses, _Look, isn't it lovely,_ and she breaks off a spray for Hecate, who puts it in a jug of revitalising potion and keeps it at her own bedside for a month.

She thinks that maybe Ada is her friend now, but she isn't certain. It feels like a long time since she had a real friend.

  
With the summer holidays comes the return of the pink sundress, and this year Hecate lets herself join Ada in soaking up the sun from time to time, even going so far as to hitch up her own dress above the ankles. She tries not to stare at the constellations of freckles that the sun brings out on Ada's rosy pink shoulders.

She realises now that Ada is not a summer person. She is an all-year-round person, each change of season seemingly making her happier than the last. Ada loves the world, fiercely, delightedly loves everything around her, all the time.

Hecate thinks that perhaps she would like to be like that too, though she doesn't quite know why. She's not sure whether it's something you can learn. Ada doesn't seem to do it on purpose.

She decides to be scientific about it, to carefully observe the world and Ada's reactions to it and see whether she can find it in herself to feel the same way.

  
For Hecate, autumn usually passes in a dull grey blur either side of the shining beacon that is Halloween.

So this year she makes an effort to pay attention. She takes note of the huge bunch of coppery leaves arranged on Ada's desk, her frank enjoyment of bonfires and toffee apples and the little sticky cinnamon buns that she only seems to eat in October. She sees that Ada's office is decorated for Halloween a full week before the rest of the castle, and most of the week after too. She is taken aback by Ada's giddy exhilaration at being swept across the sky in a November gale, leaves whirling about her like little dancing flames while Hecate bites her lip and tries not to imagine her plummeting to the ground.

  
There is no snow this year. It is a quiet, bitingly cold winter of feathery frost patterns and ice-blue skies. Hecate wraps up warm and walks with Ada in the gardens. In the daytime the grass crunches beneath their feet as they marvel at the icicles hanging everywhere. At night they stand still and gaze up at the stars, which are so big and bright that they seem almost close enough to touch. Hecate doesn't even have to look at Ada now to know when she is brimming with delight. She can feel Ada's magic sparkling in the air between them, unconsciously reaching out for somebody to share her enjoyment of the moment.

It will take another year of watching her friend joyously tumbling headlong for the world before Hecate realises that she too has been falling in love.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know who first wrote Ada with freckles but it wasn't me so kudos to them because it's cute :)


End file.
